2015 Nobel Prize in Medicine announced for parasite medications! #FirstChineseWoman!!

Congrats to Campbell, Omura, and Youyou Tu on winning the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine!! News story from NYT here!

William C. Campbell and Satoshi Omura won for developing a new drug, Avermectin. A derivative of that drug, Ivermectin, has nearly eradicated river blindness and radically reduced the incidence of filariasis, which causes the disfiguring swelling of the lymph system in the legs and lower body known as elephantiasis. They shared the $900,000 award with Youyou Tu, who discovered Artemisinin, a drug that has significantly reduced death rates from malaria.